‘Increasing conviction rate, reducing pending cases on agenda’

Working as a public prosecutor for several years, Ujwala Shankarrao Pawar is known in the legal fraternity as a straightforward woman with a no-nonsense attitude. She was recently appointed as the district government pleader for Pune district court by the state law and judiciary department. Pawar, the first woman government pleader in the history of district court, has successfully pleaded many criminal as well as civil cases. In 2000, she donned the hat of assistant public prosecutor and additional public prosecutor and secured convictions in many important cases. Pawar speaks with DNA outlining her priority as the government pleader.

You are the first woman to head the Pune district government pleader (DGP) office. What are your priorities?
I would like to thank all my colleagues in the DGP office who were very helpful during my stint as an additional public prosecutor. There is constant talk about low rate of conviction, so my priority is to increase the conviction rate.

Moreover, I would also try to bring down the pending cases that will ultimately come as a relief for the common man. At first we have to try to dispose of summary cases (cases having minor or less punishment).

The conviction rate of cases under the draconian MCOCA is very less. What are your plans to increase the conviction rate?
It is true that the conviction rate in the cases under MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) is very less. We will focus on how to increase the conviction rate and if there is any need for training, we will surely provide it to the public prosecutors. We will also extend our help to the police department to understand the reasons behind attaining greater conviction rate in public interest.

There is a spurt in cases pertaining to cyber law, digital fraud and IT Act. How do you plan to handle such cases?
As part of our daily work, we normally discuss the pros and cons of complicated cases and it helps us in pleading the cases with confidence. Apart from that, we will conduct lectures or programmes for the police as well as public prosecutors. Besides, we will give thrust on special laws and discuss case laws to improve the investigation by the city police.

How do you plan to improvise the skills of the newly-appointed public prosecutors for pleading complicated cases?
There is no need to provide training to public prosecutors as they have spent several years in this field. And if they do need any help, the senior public prosecutors are always there to help them out.